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Cornelia Naumann: Scherben des Glücks ("Shards of Happiness" - a novel about Wilhelmine)
Date: 2022-01-02 05:04 pm (UTC)Now, since she really wants to write about Wilhelmine, and any rendition of the miserable childhood and escape attempt tends to focus itself on Fritz no matter what, she starts the main story of her book in the spring of 1731 - i.e. Wilhelmine is under house arrest, Fritz is in Küstrin - and ends it shortly after the burning of the Bayreuth town palace (after which in her novel Wilhelmine reconciles with her husband for real, the two realise how much they still care for each other), with a framing narration which keeps interrupting the linear story, of Wilhelmine in her last days dreaming/ being delirious and talking to various people in her life (this includes a dream encounter with Fritz as the last but one of those present day interludes, with the last one being her actual death). There are some flashbacks to the childhood & youth to make it clear how ghastly it was, but the main narration starts as I said in the spring of 1731.
The first third is all about those few months between Wilhelmine giving in and agreeing to marry and the actual marriage, in a rendition of the arranged marriage becoming real trope that's more realistic than Die Preußische Heirat but still hits all the usual emotional beats, and then we proceed faster, narratively. The main characters are who'd you assume given this time frame - Wilhelmine, BayreuthFriedrich, Fritz, Sonsine, Female Marwitz, Superville. Additionally, author uses Wilhelmine's dressmaker, nurse and some other servants as a counter perspective to the goings-on to the noble main characters, which mostly works but not always. (Though I'm biased, since I begrudge she's describing the Wilhelmine & MT lunch from the perspective of the backstage servants who don't even describe who said what but argue about the implications.) If you're aware of the actual background, you realize how ruthlessly cut down everyone's families are. BayreuthFriedrich's siblings show up via one sister (Charlotte). Wilhelmine's non-Fritz siblings who actually get scenes are, with only one or two scenes each: Friederike (who gets Charlotte's lines about not minding if Mom hates her), Amalie (gets a cute cameo as a child), and August Wilhelm, who is the four years old "youngest" kid in the big FW homecoming & freak out scene, - Heinrich does not exist in this novel - , and later shows up as an adult in exactly one scene where he tells Wilhelmine to call him Gustl - which is wrong in several levels, firstly because Wihelm was the one of his first names he used, and secondly Gustl is a southern German/Austrian short form of August - and complains about Fritz forcing him to marry and how heartless his wife is. (Now AW was a lousy husband, but one thing he definitely is not guilty of is describing Luise as heartless.) We learn far more about the Marwitz sisters and Sonsine than we ever do about the non-Fritz siblings. Which, again, I can understand given the chosen time frame and emphasis, but of course I regret it.
The Wilhelmine characterisation is, with one exception, plausible - the author doesn't make her the misunderstood heroine all the time and shows her flaws, such as her snobbery (though we get the psychological explanation that in a childhood and youth like hers where self worth was systematically destroyed by both parents in different ways and without the rendezvous-with-fame option, "I am the daughter/sister of a King and you are not" is part of what she clings to), and her disgust and fear at the sight of poverty (which includes disgust at the sight of poor people). Her virtues, the creativity, determination, courage and loyalty of attachment of course get ample display. One key scene is when Wilhelmine meets Caroline Neuber (legendary German actress and producer working with Gottsched, the first to get German theatre from slapstick to playing good plays, though at this point mostly translated ones), and at first it's a potential disaster (due to their very different attitudes re: German as a language), but then Madame Neuber mentions her father throwing plates at her (as the explanation for a scar on her forehead which makeup can't entirely disguise) and Wilhelmine is stunned for obvious reasons.
W: "Did your father have a stick?"
CN: "How do you know that?"
W: "A girl raised by such a tyrant will be either a rebel or a hypocrite. Which one are you?"
CN: "A bit of both, your highness, since I'm an actress."
Wilhelmine has a moment of self realization there, only in her case it's "I'm a musician", and the novel takes music as her greatest passion seriously, and also shows her as a theatre and opera producer, sometimes even makes it too blatant for my taste that this is also her therapy, though not only that. (By letting Wilhelmine actually say that her opera Argenore is "my cure". This is too sledgehammery - trust your readers more, Cornelia Naumann.) Consequently, the novel's big moment of FW exorcism for Wilhelmine is when she learns he's dying, he only has weeks to live via a Fritz letter. At the same time, Argenore, her first completed opera, is about to be produced, she has finally settled all arguments of her cast, gotten the musicians and singers to work just as she wanted. If she wants to see FW alive and take her leave of him, complete with final death bed conciliation, she has to go to Berlin and abandon the idea of seeing her opera debut. She's torn, but then says "No, Papa, you will never take my music from me again" and remains in Bayreuth, letting FW die without her and watching her fictional King, Argenore, kill himself after having realized he's destroyed his son and daughter.
There is no comparable SD exorcism, since SD as a character doesn't show up anymore after the marriage, but fair enough, I don't think there was one in Wilhelmine's actual life, and it would have to be invented from stretch.
Since "Friedrich" is what Wilhelmine's husband the Margrave is called by the narration, Fritz is in Wilhelmine's thoughts either "Federic" or "Fritz". Given the time frame, I was wondering whether he'd be depicted as too negative, or whether the author was of the Lavisse/Jürgen Luh school of "he didn't love anyone except maybe Fredersdorf, and if he ever loved Wilhelmine he didn't anymore after her marriage", but no. He does love her, the enstrangement is depicted as hailing from multiple causes, and when he comes through for her post reconciliation by paying off female Marwitz without a question because that means she'll finally depart and leave Wilhelmine's husband for good, Wilhelmine realises he's never stopped loving her and they still have each other. This Fritz is also unquestioningly gay, though with the novel's lack of subtlety he gets a modern coming out scene with Wilhelmine in early 1732 (the novel lets him accompangny her and Bayreuth Friedrich a bit on the way to Bayreuth), which goes like this:
Fritz: So, you really are into your husband. Good for you, but I'm extra depressed.
Wilhelmine: One day, you'll also find someone to truly love...
F: Already did - Katte! I'm gay, I realise this now. Which I realized after Orzelska infected me with syphilis, thus curing me of heterosexuality forever, which is something else I confide to you in this scene. But back to Katte! He was the love of my life. There'll never be another. And now I'll have to marry because Dad makes me. I'm telling you, it'll be celibacy for the rest of my life now.
W: Um. I was pretty sure something was off about your intense Katte feelings (Keith who?), and I'm responding in a very 20th century fashion by first feeling an instinct of abhorrence and then my love for you overriding my sociological homophobia. Fritz, I feel for you, but you should marry EC because if you refuse, Dad will just imprison you all over again. Later in this book, I will realise I'm not immune to same sex attraction myself. For now, I promise you I'll never forget Katte and his sacrifice, either!
Now, here are the novel interpretations/theories I actually wanted to talk with you about:
1) Escape attempt. Cornelia Naumann actually has Wilhelmine not just knowing about this but fully intending to escape along with Fritz to England (and marry Fritz of Wales). Alas, Fritz then changes the plan spontanously by deciding to use the southern trip with Dad as his getaway. This is what was in the burned letters. Now, on the one hand, I could believe that Fritz and Katte covered for Wilhelmine in their interrogations and Wilhelmine herself would stick to the official version in her memoirs, but on the other, I think that removes both Fritz' subconscious resentment that Wilhelmine didn't encourage him in his escape plans and Wilhelmine's subconscious resentment he was willing to leave her to FW's tender mercies which did influence their relationship thereafter.
2) Superville and female Marwitz. Of Female Marwitz's two names, "Dorothea Wilhelmine", our author uses the second but shortens it to the nickname "Minni" under which she's known in the novel. Wilhelmine isn't just bff with her at first but does feel some attraction even after realizing BayreuthFriedrich is into her, but at this point "Minni" still keeps it platonic with BayreuthFriedrich. This slowly changes, plus Superville shows up, flirting with Wilhelmine from the get go, who is also attracted to him. BayreuthFriedrich then essentially suggests open marriage, i.e. him/Minni, Wilhelmine/Superville. (But this is something only he and Wilhelmine know about.) This happens for a while. When Minni does find out Wilhelmine has an affair of her own, and with Superville (who can't stand Fritz and vice versa), she starts to blackmail Wilhelmine with this knowledge, on the premise that if Fritz finds out his favourite sister, that exception to the female sex and honorary man, has a lover, he will be v.v.v. angry with her indeed. This is when Minni becomes officially Maitresse en Titre (and Wilhelmine's own attraction to her, which she didn't act on but which had her wonder whether she's "like Sappho" a few times, ends). Wilhelmine retaliates by setting Minni up with Austrian Count Burghaus, but this marriage is one of the Fritz estrangement factors so makes everything worse, and Minni uses her knowledge of the Superville affair even more. When she starts to change court positions, Wilhelmine has had it and asks Fritz for help re: the Marwitz heritage money so she can pay out Minni while simultanously ending her affair with Superville, sending him to Braunschweig to her sister (Charlotte, though not named in the novel), thus removing the leverage Minni has on her.
Now, I can buy both Wilhelmine having more than just friendly feelings for female Marwitz, especially in this half aware fashion, as one factor why early on she doesn't do anything about the affair and is okay with it. The idea of her having an affair with Superville and female Marwitz using this as blackmail material as an explanation as to why Wilhelmine didn't try to get rid of her sooner once she became disenchanted with her intrigues me, and certainly offers new subtext for Superville's Fritz hate-on and keeping of Wilhelmine's last memoirs manuscript. (Unmentioned in this novel, though.) HOWEVER, all of this is also connected to the author's general characterisation of Wilhelmine very much enjoying sex (once BayreuthFriedrich has introduced her to it), which I didn't get the impression she did from her letters (but then, those are to her siblings, so...)
3.) Sonsine's motives for supporting the English Marriage project as long as she did. The author does a general good job with Sonsine, making her dedicated to Wilhelmine but also having her own ambitions early on. In 1731, when the novel starts, this means she doesn't want to end up in the backwater provinces of Bayreuth, she's not as fixated as SD but she has been hoping to be rewarded for years of live in the FW household by moving to Britain and be the confidante of the future Queen of England, and it takes some time her her to abandon this dream. Sounds plausible, no?
Oh, and the author does sprinkle in some incest subtext, like this:
BayreuthFriedrich: I'm going to surprise my standoffish fiancee while showing up while she's playing the lute; I'll respond with my transverse flute, she's bound to love it!
Wilhelmine, once she hears the flute playing: Is shocked, burst into tears, runs off.
BayreuthFriedrich: ?!?
Or, two days before Wilhelmine's marriage:
SD: Daughter, forget all my words about how I hate you now. I've just come up with a new plan, which you need to follow. See, marriages can be annulled when they're not consumated. Therefore, you should treat your husband exactly like you treat your brother, and must live with him like brother and sister! Shouldn't be too difficult for you, should it? And then, after a few months, when the marriage proposal from England finally arrives, we can annull the hell out of this arrangement. So: brother/sister is your watchword!
W: ?!?
And, again, Minni: Yeah, our Prussian Overlord isn't too keen on his brother-in-law anyway, but what he definitely won't forgive is Wilhelmine taking a lover out of her own free will.
Lastly: the novel's Wilhelmine has a very modern abhorrence of war in general. Not buying it for historical Wilhelmine. I mean, yes, she was concerned for her husband when the Polish Succession war was a thing in the mid 1730s, and obviously she was worried for her brothers' lives in all the wars. And she definitely tried to make a separate peace with France happen as hard as she could in the last two years of her life. But she also wrote "wow, you're awesome!" letters to Fritz in the first two Silesian wars, not "less Mars, be Apollo again" letters which is what she does in the novel, and I don't recall any "(any)war is evil" statement from her in reality.
So, all in all: like I said, the novel isn't a must, neither awful nor really good, but interesting to read.
Re: Cornelia Naumann: Scherben des Glücks ("Shards of Happiness" - a novel about Wilhelmine)
Date: 2022-01-03 01:22 am (UTC)(Though I'm biased, since I begrudge she's describing the Wilhelmine & MT lunch from the perspective of the backstage servants who don't even describe who said what but argue about the implications.)
I am indignant on your behalf!
Wilhelmine to call him Gustl - which is wrong in several levels, firstly because Wihelm was the one of his first names he used, and secondly Gustl is a southern German/Austrian short form of August
Guille! Guille!
Now AW was a lousy husband, but one thing he definitely is not guilty of is describing Luise as heartless.
Hmm, yes, this seems inaccurate. Zimperliese, maybe. (I know that was Fritz, but I bet he agreed.) But not heartless!
(though we get the psychological explanation that in a childhood and youth like hers where self worth was systematically destroyed by both parents in different ways and without the rendezvous-with-fame option, "I am the daughter/sister of a King and you are not" is part of what she clings to), and her disgust and fear at the sight of poverty (which includes disgust at the sight of poor people).
I remember you proposing this, back when we talked about Letti and Sonsine, since Letti gets the "She's just a low-class good-for-nothing!" explanation of her awfulness, and Sonsine the "She comes from a good family with a long history of service, so naturally she was wonderful" explanation. And your speculation (very plausible, imo), was that "At least I'm the daughter of a king, you Italian lowlife" was Wilhelmine's self-defense during the years of brutal abuse at Letti's hands.
If she wants to see FW alive and take her leave of him, complete with final death bed conciliation, she has to go to Berlin and abandon the idea of seeing her opera debut. She's torn, but then says "No, Papa, you will never take my music from me again"
Wow. I can see why the author went for this in fiction, but as I recall, irl it went like this:
Fritz: Dad's about to kick the bucket. For real this time.
W: Omg. I need to see him one last time before he dies.
Fritz: What? No, trust me, that's a terrible idea. You've just forgotten how bad it is since you're safely away in Bayreuth.
W: But he's the only father I've got, and this is my last chance!
Fritz: I can't stop you, strictly speaking, but seriously. Bad idea. Don't do it.
W, bitterly, in her memoirs: So I didn't go, since nobody wanted me, and I never got to say goodbye.
Fritz: *no doubt repressed resentment in the opposite direction*
There is no comparable SD exorcism, since SD as a character doesn't show up anymore after the marriage, but fair enough, I don't think there was one in Wilhelmine's actual life, and it would have to be invented from stretch.
Semiramis? Even I put that in my fic! (Thanks to you.)
Katte! I'm gay, I realise this now. Which I realized after Orzelska infected me with syphilis, thus curing me of heterosexuality forever, which is something else I confide to you in this scene. But back to Katte!
Uh. I hope you didn't give Katte your syphilis. Because that's exactly where my mind immediately went.
Now, on the one hand, I could believe that Fritz and Katte covered for Wilhelmine in their interrogations and Wilhelmine herself would stick to the official version in her memoirs, but on the other, I think that removes both Fritz' subconscious resentment that Wilhelmine didn't encourage him in his escape plans and Wilhelmine's subconscious resentment he was willing to leave her to FW's tender mercies which did influence their relationship thereafter.
Hmm. Narratively speaking, I agree about removing the subconscious resentment. Historically...yeah, given what we know of Fritz's various escape plans (people seem to forget how many there were, it wasn't like a war campaign planned out in advance, it was just a stressed teenager looking frantically for the first opportunity and snatching at whatever straws he could find, which is why it changed from month to month), most of them don't have much room for Wilhelmine. Like the plan to escape from Zeithain.
That said, everyone would totally have covered for her, I'd buy that. And she did give him jewelry, which he then sold and later denied she had any knowledge of what he used it for, as I recall.
This slowly changes, plus Superville shows up, flirting with Wilhelmine from the get go, who is also attracted to him.
Huh. Well, he was pretty intelligent, articulate, and strong-willed, as I recall. Fritz liked talking to him, right? I could see him being the kind of person Wilhelmine might go for. But is he trash-talking Fritz in front of her? Maybe in the 1740s she'd go for that, but late 1730s? :P
As for same-sex attraction, especially half aware...could be. Like you said, historically she didn't seem to have much of a sex drive ("Fidelity's not much of a virtue if there's no temptation"), and maybe there was a latent lesbianism there. But Wilhelmine as strongly sexed bisexual...idk. Not seeing the historical evidence.
3.) Sonsine's motives for supporting the English Marriage project as long as she did....she doesn't want to end up in the backwater provinces of Bayreuth, she's not as fixated as SD but she has been hoping to be rewarded for years of live in the FW household by moving to Britain and be the confidante of the future Queen of England, and it takes some time her her to abandon this dream. Sounds plausible, no?
Yep. Especially since as I recall, the memoirs go like this:
Fritz: *tries to escape*
FW: *shows up in Berlin*
SD: *lines up all the kids to plead for his life*
FW: *beats Wilhelmine brutally*
Wilhelmine: *lying semi-conscious on the floor with her bloody head on Sonsine's lap*
Wilhelmine, weak whisper: Dad, I'll marry anyone you want!
Sonsine: *covers Wilhelmine's mouth*
That is some dedication to the English marriages right there, Sonsine. So yeah, whether or not it literally happened like this, I think we can safely say that Wilhelmine remembered Sonsine as a strong supporter of the English marriage project.
Therefore, you should treat your husband exactly like you treat your brother, and must live with him like brother and sister! Shouldn't be too difficult for you, should it? And then, after a few months, when the marriage proposal from England finally arrives, we can annull the hell out of this arrangement. So: brother/sister is your watchword!
This is straight out of the memoirs, right? I feel like I remember this.
I don't recall any "(any)war is evil" statement from her in reality.
My memory is hazy, but the first thing that comes to mind is the letters to Voltaire that were published as an appendix to the Kindle edition of Wilhelmine's memoirs. Now, I can't skim German and don't have 30 minutes to read line by line to see what she says and doesn't say, but...you can skim German!
Re: Cornelia Naumann: Scherben des Glücks ("Shards of Happiness" - a novel about Wilhelmine)
Date: 2022-01-03 09:05 am (UTC)Quite. I mean, with a main character called Wilhelmine whose father is referred to by the text as Friedrich Wilhelm consistently, I get why a novelist might not want to use the name "Wilhelm" for the younger brother who only shows up in two scenes, but there is a canonical nickname to use. (Reminds me of fanfic making up nicknames, truly.)
(Meanwhile, the novel has Voltaire call her "Soeur Guillaumette", so it's not like Cornelia Naumann didn't look up the French forms for Wilhelm. What I suspect is that having decided to limit the non-Fritz siblings to the absolute minimum of appearances, and making AW and Heinrich one character, she didn't bother to read up on them, hence no awareness of either AW's canonical nickname from his siblings or Luise's personality. (The one scene with adult AW doesn't include him canonically mediating between Wilhelmine and Fritz despite being set during the enstrangement years, it's just there to signal Fritz is behaving increasingly FW like towards the younger sibs.) In the one AW childhood scene (where he's 4 years old Heinrich in the big FW homecoming scene), Naumann does use a canonical nickname FW uses towards him - "Hulla" - but it's very evident where she has that one from, which is Jochen Keppel's novel Der Vater.
Hmm, yes, this seems inaccurate. Zimperliese, maybe. (I know that was Fritz, but I bet he agreed.) But not heartless!
Yes, agreed that calling her a Zimperliese would have been likely. But the absolutely last thing either Fritz or AW would cmoplain about re: the Braunschweig sisters is their lack of feeling!
Fritz advising Wilhelmine not to travel to Berlin for a deathbed goodbye from FW: this is actually in the novel, but as an aside, i.e. BayreuthFriedrich when Wilhelmine is still wavering whether or not to go brings it up and speculates Fritz might have wanted to prevent FW in a sentimental deathbed mode changing his last will at the last second and leaving Wilhelmine more stuff. This he says not in a Fritz bashing manner but by ruefully acknowledging he and Wilhelmine were afraid of his own father doing a very similar thing before dying and that's why he's glad his own sister didn't make it to the deathbed.
Anyway, agreed that Wilhelmine deciding on staying in Bayreuth to stage her opera instead of one last attempt with Dad is the novelist's reordering of events and motivations so Wilhelmine can have a proper FW exorcism.
Semiramis: true enough in terms of her likely using this to deal with her SD issues, but in terms of a novel, I can see why the author didn't go for it - it would feel repetitive, not like another emotional climax, -, and in terms of rl, I think it was venting rather than exorcism. Not least because while the plot of Argenore was constructed by Wilhelmine herself in a way that includes clear parallels to her real life miseries, "Semiramis"' plot was written by Voltaire and doesn't parallel anything with SD. Staging an opera featuring matricide for your mother's birthday still feels lie a pointed dig, but while Argenore and FW have clearly things in common, Semiramis and SD do not, so, like I said - more venting than exorcism. Not to mention that as opposed to FW, where she and Fritz were on the same page emotionally, SD's sons showed a "best of mothers" attitude towards her, and of the sisters, Amalie was the only one likely to agree out loud with Wihelmine if they ever spoke about her, and because of the age gap and the long distance, Wilhelmine saw adult Amalie only during her two or three visits to Berlin. (I loved that you gave the two a chance to talk about her in your AU, though!) So I don't think in rl, there was ever a chance for a true SD exorcism.
But is he trash-talking Fritz in front of her? Maybe in the 1740s she'd go for that, but late 1730s? :P
The novel puts the scene where he's trash talking Fritz after they've already become lovers, not before, i.e. in the 1740s, not the 1730s, but it lets him say stuff which I think the memoirs let him say in the late 1730s.
Oh, and this will amuse you:
W and BayreuthFriedrich are in Rheinsberg in later 1740, meeting Voltaire:
BayreuthFriedrich: Can it be your brother is up to something? There are all those mysterious messengers. I think he could be preparing war.
Wilhelmine: I hope not, I hate war, and he used to, too, but otoh... I know! He's totally going to get Jülich and Berg!
Though Cornelia Naumann sticks to the Prussian perspective in terms of Silesia as much as Nancy Goldstone does to the Austrian one in her MT & daughters book, i.e. Fritz is "reconquering" Silesia from MT in Silesia 1, and "preventing Austrian agression" in Silesia 2. The 7 years War, otoh, is seen as Fritz' fault for not making any diplomatic efforts and pissing everyone off in between, and for invading Saxony, of course. Now like I said, Wilhelmine was majorly invested in trying to get a peace with France for her brother in her last two years of life, but at least according to her letters (by which I don't just mean the ones to Fritz but the ones to Voltaire), she did blame MT and Elisaveta, not Fritz, for the 7 Years War. (Alas the only letters of hers to AW which I know written during the 7 Years War are the ones Volz quotes and they deal with AW's last year of life and the issue of his disgrace. Ziebura says the entire correspondence with AW is still unspublished, which is a shame because it possibly could offer a different look - since AW was very much against this war when it started.
(As an example for a compare and contrast of how Wilhelmine expresses herself towards each brother on the same matter:
To Fritz: Only you are perfect, can't you forgive AW for not being? He does have a good heart and didn't act from malice, I'm sure you'll agree!
To AW: I'm sure he didn't mean it like that when saying what he did to you. He was angry, you know how he is, but look, he's the King, and one of you has to say sorry first!)
But Wilhelmine as strongly sexed bisexual...idk. Not seeing the historical evidence.
Same here. Also: given how quickly she got pregnant after her marriage, and the general fertility in the family, I think if she had a regular sex life (with the Margrave or a male lover), chances are she would have gotten pregnant more than once. (Which she didn't. I don't recall any miscarriages after the birth of her daughter, either.) Naumann uses the fact that Superville was a doctor for letting him use 18th century style contraception methods plus non vagina-penetrating types of sex to prevent this, admittedly, but BayreuthFriedrich really was in need of a male heir, and if he and Wilhelmine had a vivid sex life (even one interrupted for a few years when the Marwitz crisis was at its peak), I think there would have been at least some false alarms or stillbirths. Yes, Wilhelmine had terrible health in general, but she already had in 1731/1732, and it didn't stop her from conceiving almost immediately.
In terms of same sex attraction, the novel lets "Minni" be the only one she has such semi-aware feelings for, which she doesn't act on (other than having a fervent friendship with her until she realises Minni loves power most of all), so I wouldn't say she's presented as a bisexual, more like a strongly sexed heterosexual with one (unrequited) gay exception. It's the strongly sexed part I don't buy in terms of history.
Otoh, I can see BayreuthFriedrich charming Wilhelmine during their engagement and first years of marriage, quite aside from how often or not they had sex. He was musical, spoke Parisian French (i.e. better French than Wilhelmine and Fritz do, which she realises with a shock once she has longer conversations with him) due to having actually been to Paris, had generally an amiable disposition but wasn't a complete pushover (see him refusing to play FW's drinking game), and later was a fond father to their kid - what's not to fall in love with if you're coming fresh from Wusterhausen hell?
This is straight out of the memoirs, right? I feel like I remember this.
The memoirs definitely have the "be like brother and sister with him" advice from SD, but the novel then bookends it with BayreuthFriedrich teaching Wilhelmine the joys of sex in the wedding night and her thinking, okay, definitely not brother and sister, and then transitioning to thinking, Alas, Federic, we're Artemis and Apollo no longer.
Uh. I hope you didn't give Katte your syphilis. Because that's exactly where my mind immediately went.
LOL. Mine, too. But also, "No Nauman wants to combine the traditional no homo/broken penis theory with the more current "yes, he was gay" attitude, with the result that Fritz is No Magic AU Albus Dumbledore? (One gay true love ending in trauma, then celibacy ever after.)
Oh, I forgot, the opening section with early 1731 Wihelmine has this:
Eversmann (FW's evil valet who is really evil and slimy in this novel): The King says you're allowed to take breakfeast outside of your rooms now, in the dining room, with an nice view. There'll be chocolate!
W (and Sonsine): Yay! Does this mean Dad is coming around?
Breakfast: Starts.
Courtyeard below window of dining room: gets filled with a few soldiers marching a sixteen years old girl there.
Whipping of sixteen years old girl: happens.
Eversmann: This is Doris Ritter, your highness, your brother's mistress. Getting whipped as a whore for her part in your brother's escape attempt. The King wants you to know this is exactly what he's going to do to Fräulein von Sonsfeld next if you don't agree to marrying whom he wants you to marry. Enjoy the rest of your breakfast.
Aside from freaking out on Sonsine's behalf, Wilhelmine also has the time to think there's no way Doris Ritter was Fritz' mistress, Fritz just hung out with her (and her Dad the choirmaster) because he loved that sense of a musical loving family he got there which he sure as hell could not get at home. When reading, I took her certainty that there was no Fritz/Doris sex (or even interest in same on Fritz' part) also to mean she knew already he was gay, but then later in the scene where Fritz comes out to her, this is presented as news (albeit news about which she has had some suspicions due to the intensity of the Fritz/Katte relationship. (The novel's Wilhelmine has no feelings, either positive or negative, about Peter and his Katte preceding relationship with Fritz. Though Peter is name checked as part of the escape attempt, but as happens more than once in Frederician fiction, he's merged with his brother Not!Robert the page.)
Re: Cornelia Naumann: Scherben des Glücks ("Shards of Happiness" - a novel about Wilhelmine)
Date: 2022-01-08 05:05 pm (UTC)Huh. This is interesting. What do you think about his real-life motives? Resenting Wilhelmine still loving their father this much, not wanting W on site to lead to accusations of influencing him when he becomes king, not wanting the will changed, some combination of the above...?
and in terms of rl, I think it was venting rather than exorcism
Fair!
Ziebura says the entire correspondence with AW is still unspublished, which is a shame because it possibly could offer a different look - since AW was very much against this war when it started.
Yeah, that would be interesting.
I think if she had a regular sex life (with the Margrave or a male lover), chances are she would have gotten pregnant more than once. (Which she didn't. I don't recall any miscarriages after the birth of her daughter, either.)
Huh. No chance that something happened during that birth that made her infertile? I've always thought something along those lines might be happening, or it could be a random fluke. One set of my grandparents had one kid pronto, tried and tried and were told they couldn't have any more, then knocked out 3 more miraculously in their 40s. Fertility is weird, and I'm always reluctant to draw conclusions about sex lives from fertility.
Given that the Margrave needed the male heir, and given how quickly she got pregnant after the marriage (
see him refusing to play FW's drinking game
As I recall and what I'm seeing in the Christmas 1732 passage was that FW *did* make him play the drinking game, but Friedrich gave him some backtalk and didn't take the insults lying down.
The poor hereditary prince was at all these entertainments, and the king forced him to drink whether he would or not...."I could wish," said he aloud to Seckendorff, " that the king was not my father-in-law; I should soon show him that this ass of whom he speaks would make him hold a different sort of language, and that he is not a man to allow himself to be ill-used." At the same time he swallowed the contents of the bumper, which was almost as fatal to him as poison.
W (and Sonsine): Yay! Does this mean Dad is coming around?
OH NOES. Wow.
(The novel's Wilhelmine has no feelings, either positive or negative, about Peter and his Katte preceding relationship with Fritz. Though Peter is name checked as part of the escape attempt, but as happens more than once in Frederician fiction, he's merged with his brother Not!Robert the page.)
I can see why everyone simplifies the Keiths! Still, irl it's rather telling that Wilhelmine resents both of them, or at least reports doing so after the fact (i.e. when the escape attempt has failed and I'm sure part of her wants to blame them).
Re: Cornelia Naumann: Scherben des Glücks ("Shards of Happiness" - a novel about Wilhelmine)
Date: 2022-01-11 06:20 am (UTC)Re: Cornelia Naumann: Scherben des Glücks ("Shards of Happiness" - a novel about Wilhelmine)
Date: 2022-01-09 04:00 pm (UTC)I hadn't heard that one before. Was that some strange form of Wilhelm or did it come from something else?
speculates Fritz might have wanted to prevent FW in a sentimental deathbed mode changing his last will at the last second and leaving Wilhelmine more stuff
Huh. That never ever occurred to me as a reason. Did FW even write an itemized will like Fritz did later, rewarding people who'd always shown him friendship? If so, do we have a copy somewhere? Because my impression was that he only wrote a more general one, and of course the political testament version.
But be that as it may, I really can't see Fritz begrudging Wilhelmine getting some more money or the like, on the contrary.
The reason he himself gives is of course that it would be detrimental for her health because the situation is so bad, which mostly means what it always did - FW is unpredictable and temperamental and the atmosphere at court is horrible, so he himself is always happy when he can be away for a couple of days as well. And I mean, he's not wrong that Wilhelmine had a horrible time with long-term consequences for her health the last time she was in Berlin. But I also think that he didn't want to deal with her possible grief and by extension his own mixed feelings over what was happening. I also think that maybe he wanted to be in control of the moment as much as possible. (AW got a detailed "what to do if Dad dies while I'm not there" letter.)
Eversmann: This is Doris Ritter, your highness, your brother's mistress. Getting whipped as a whore for her part in your brother's escape attempt. The King wants you to know this is exactly what he's going to do to Fräulein von Sonsfeld next if you don't agree to marrying whom he wants you to marry. Enjoy the rest of your breakfast.
You know, fictional or not, this is something I could see FW doing. Reminds me of SD's "I think you only told me that you want Fritz dead to see what I will say/do" letter.
Re: Cornelia Naumann: Scherben des Glücks ("Shards of Happiness" - a novel about Wilhelmine)
Date: 2022-01-09 04:58 pm (UTC)Yeah, makes sense. <3
I also think that maybe he wanted to be in control of the moment as much as possible.
Now this would be 100% in character!
Reminds me of SD's "I think you only told me that you want Fritz dead to see what I will say/do" letter.
Wait, remind me?
Re: Cornelia Naumann: Scherben des Glücks ("Shards of Happiness" - a novel about Wilhelmine)
Date: 2022-01-09 05:05 pm (UTC)Re: Cornelia Naumann: Scherben des Glücks ("Shards of Happiness" - a novel about Wilhelmine)
Date: 2022-01-09 05:19 pm (UTC)Re: Cornelia Naumann: Scherben des Glücks ("Shards of Happiness" - a novel about Wilhelmine)
Date: 2022-01-03 08:13 pm (UTC)Ahaha. That's most
unimaginativeinconsiderate, novel author!he gets a modern coming out scene with Wilhelmine in early 1732 (the novel lets him accompangny her and Bayreuth Friedrich a bit on the way to Bayreuth)
Yeah, not a fan of this kind of on-the-nose anachronism. Also, I don't think FW would have LET Fritz accompany Wilhelmine anywhere in 1732, would he?
after Orzelska infected me with syphilis
What! Poor Orzelska, lies and slander. (Or did she in fact have syphilis? If so, I didn't know.)
fully intending to escape along with Fritz
Everything else that you and Mildred said aside, I'm also not sure how they'd have pulled this off logistically.
on the premise that if Fritz finds out his favourite sister, that exception to the female sex and honorary man, has a lover, he will be v.v.v. angry with her indeed.
I feel like somebody was not aware of Fritz's multiple comments on this question in general, although I'll concede that with Wilhelmine in particular it might have been a bit different emotionally. But not on the "exception to the female sex" basis.
new subtext for Superville's Fritz hate-on and keeping of Wilhelmine's last memoirs manuscript
Huh. I can't see it from Wilhelmine's side tbh, but from his angle it would be interesting subtext indeed.
the novel's Wilhelmine has a very modern abhorrence of war in general. Not buying it for historical Wilhelmine.
she definitely tried to make a separate peace with France happen as hard as she could in the last two years of her life
I think part of the peace-making effort and her attitude in general was definitely the desire to do something and to help Fritz in any way possible. I certainly remember several letters along the lines of "I wish I was a man / an Amazon, so I could help you and fight at your side, because that would be much better than just sitting around and worrying". Not to mention that the war wasn't exactly great for Bayreuth either. On the other hand, June 1756: je pense come Sancho qui etoit une creature tres pacifique et je voudrois fort qu’on l’erige en Docteur pour mettre fin au Carnage et a La Fureur qu’on a de se detruire. (Which is from an apparently unpublished letter quoted in this article on the topic at hand. Also this quote, which is in Volz as well: Why is the age of the Amazons over! Then the guiding star of your army would not be the desire for glory, but the heartfelt love. Your good spirit would protect me from the clutches of your two diabolical opponents. What's interesting here is the glory vs. love thing, which suggests to me that her support for him and his battles and wars is very much due to personal love and not so much on a political level.)
Re: Cornelia Naumann: Scherben des Glücks ("Shards of Happiness" - a novel about Wilhelmine)
Date: 2022-01-04 12:20 am (UTC)I'm going with hard no. Fritz was allowed to do some traveling in late 1731 for work-related purposes (how he met Fredersdorf), but FW was very suspicious of the sibling bond and tried to keep them apart as much as possible. This is how you get the Grumbkow "Boundaries!" letter.
What's interesting here is the glory vs. love thing, which suggests to me that her support for him and his battles and wars is very much due to personal love and not so much on a political level.)
I haven't read a fraction of the correspondence that you have, but from what I have read and what you and
what do you mean that doesn't include lunch with MT," I would. (Like Charlotte, who I totally buy is more of the "Come back with your shield or on it" type.)Re: Cornelia Naumann: Scherben des Glücks ("Shards of Happiness" - a novel about Wilhelmine)
Date: 2022-01-08 05:07 pm (UTC)Meant to say: no, I'm not aware that she did. Which is not to say that she didn't, but like you, I've missed it if so.
Who has STD and who does not?
Date: 2022-01-09 09:05 am (UTC)1) Young Fritz got infected with some kind of STD, which is the big explanation for his mistress-less state in later years, and
2) Young Fritz briefly had something going on with Orzelska
combine with
3) The Dresden court was famously loose-lived, and while the August/Orzelska incest story could have just been malicious gossip, she did have several affairs
to conclude that:
4) Orzelska was the one infecting him with an STD/syphilis.
I've even seen a chatty article of pop culture history speculating that the Scouring of Saxony in the 7 Years War is Fritz' long term revenge for the STD and the breaking of his young heart by infectious Orzelska which, just, no. As for Orzelska, if she did have an STD, she must have managed to be super discreet about it, because I don't recall Pöllnitz or another gossipy memoirist/anecdotist of the time mentioning it. And decades later, when the story of young Fritz catching STD as the explanation for Old Fritz' lack of a visible sex life is making the rounds, the version which Boswell hears in 1764 definitely has young Fritz going to whores, not catching it from a lady of the nobility.
Now before I read the Manteuffel biographies, I'd have been inclined to write off the "whores" part to misinformation/bad guesswork, but the thing is, Manteuffel's letters to Brühl do mention not just young Fritz using prostitutes in Ruppin but that he and La Chetardie try to pay one and the same prostitute for information. Now later, Manteuffel comes to the conclusion that the guys from Fritz' social circle are better sources, and once he's in himself, he drops the prostitutes-as-sources idea completely and mades Hadrian comparisons instead o Seckendorff the Nephew, but I can see newly stationed at Ruppin Fritz who is in a frat boy mode and bonding with his officers (see Gröben letters) share brothel visits a few times as a form of male bonding (and also rebellion against the marriage Dad forced on him), even if he's not that keen on het sex. Did he get infected on those occasions? Could be, especially given all the STD jokes he later makes, especially towards younger men like Heinrich (in the Marwitz letters) and even Carel the Page (telling him the acne on his face is STD). It's just that the later gossip's conclusion that this is the cause for his lack of a het sex life is wrong. There's also young Münchow's certainty that Fritz didn't have a crippled penis in his indignant letters which originally came to our attention because of the Katte execution content but which also adress Zimmermann's by then publisized theory, and where he says that in addition to what he himself witnessed as a page in the 30s (where Fritz going upstairs to his wife in the night was surely not to pray with her), there's a third party who could swear that Fritz did have sex post 1734, and the phrasing made us thinking maybe he means a medic who had to treat Fritz or a servant witnessing that.
In conclusion: did young Fritz at some point catch STD? (Though not one to cripple his penis.) Likely. Did he catch it from the Countess Orzelska? Very unlikely.
Re: Who has STD and who does not?
Date: 2022-01-09 05:18 pm (UTC)Yeah, I'm increasingly convinced by the weight of evidence that this probably happened, and that he probably had more sex than I realized when I started salon. Definitely in his younger years, possibly later on too, with candidates like Marwitz and Glasow.
In conclusion: did young Fritz at some point catch STD? (Though not one to cripple his penis.) Likely.
Yeah, you're convincing me. :)
Re: Who has STD and who does not?
Date: 2022-01-11 06:22 am (UTC)this is the kind of high-minded content I absolutely come to salon forRe: Cornelia Naumann: Scherben des Glücks ("Shards of Happiness" - a novel about Wilhelmine)
Date: 2022-01-04 06:43 am (UTC)Oh nooooo! Well, what's the use of that! :(
Which, again, I can understand given the chosen time frame and emphasis, but of course I regret it.
And of course I am right there with you :(
CN: "A bit of both, your highness, since I'm an actress."
I must admit I like this line :)
Wilhelmine has a moment of self realization there, only in her case it's "I'm a musician", and the novel takes music as her greatest passion seriously, and also shows her as a theatre and opera producer
I approve! :) Even if it is blatant :P
She's torn, but then says "No, Papa, you will never take my music from me again" and remains in Bayreuth, letting FW die without her and watching her fictional King, Argenore, kill himself after having realized he's destroyed his son and daughter.
I mean... I see
but no. He does love her, the enstrangement is depicted as hailing from multiple causes, and when he comes through for her post reconciliation by paying off female Marwitz without a question because that means she'll finally depart and leave Wilhelmine's husband for good, Wilhelmine realises he's never stopped loving her and they still have each other.
Awwww! :D <3
F: Already did - Katte! I'm gay, I realise this now. Which I realized after Orzelska infected me with syphilis, thus curing me of heterosexuality forever
BWAHAHAHAHA okay I must admit I laughed really hard at this
Cornelia Naumann actually has Wilhelmine not just knowing about this but fully intending to escape along with Fritz to England (and marry Fritz of Wales).
Yeah, I like the theory as explaining all those burned letters (my perspective is, of course, a narrative one, not a historical one :D ) but the thing is that I feel like there is a fair amount of resentment of not knowing what Fritz is doing all through the memoirs. Also, she wasn't exactly writing them for publication, right? So would there have been an incentive for her to stick to the "official story"?
HOWEVER, all of this is also connected to the author's general characterisation of Wilhelmine very much enjoying sex (once BayreuthFriedrich has introduced her to it), which I didn't get the impression she did from her letters (but then, those are to her siblings, so...)
Wilhelmine with a strong sexual drive is definitely not in my headcanon!
otherwise maybe there would have been some of that incest after allAnd, again, Minni: Yeah, our Prussian Overlord isn't too keen on his brother-in-law anyway, but what he definitely won't forgive is Wilhelmine taking a lover out of her own free will.
Ha, well, this I really do buy :P
Re: Cornelia Naumann: Scherben des Glücks ("Shards of Happiness" - a novel about Wilhelmine)
Date: 2022-01-04 01:57 pm (UTC)My question precisely. I was so hoping I finally would read a fictional take on that encounter! It's even more frustrating because in addition to the servants on that occasion, later several other characters talk about it, since the author thinks by lunching with MT on that occasion, Wilhelmine saved Bayreuth from being annexed or at least invaded by Austria or becoming war ground between Austria and Prussia, and uses this as an example of how diplomacy wins. But we never find out what they said! (BTW, in real life, coming as it did when the second Silesian War was almost over, I'm not sure Austria had invading-Bayreuth-plans at this particular point, but certainly Bayreuth as a tiny Franconian principality with Bavaria next door, then Austria, and Fritz in the background did have the general problem of not being in a situation where they could have prevented any military takeover and needed to work with alliances and diplomacy a lot.
I must admit I like this line :)
So do I, hence my quoting it.
Also, she wasn't exactly writing them for publication, right?
Yes and no. She seems to have changed her intentions through the various manuscript stages, with the earliest 1739 one a "doing this for myself" matter, then at later points there are versions where she seems to intend her daughter to read it, and very late in the game, she seems to have readers in mind (such as in "Hey, I know my story is pretty gloomy; time for a comic relief interlude, featuring Fräulein von Pannnewitz punching Dad" passage, or in a very late one where after in a Fritz criticial passage she urges the readers not to be hasty and not to consider the portrait of this King drawn until the story is over. (Which it will never be, of course.) So I think at some point, she wrote for future generations as well as herself and her daughter. Meaning: she definitely didn't want any of her contemporaries to read it, especially not Fritz, but she wanted it to be read eventually.
So would there have been an incentive for her to stick to the "official story"?
Well, if she's an active con-conspirator encouraging Fritz to make that getaway and intending to make it with him, she also is to blame for the later disaster as much as he is, and like many a memoir, hers have her being inevitably right in her decisions and predictions (such as when she tells Katte to be careful etc.). Rare are the memoirs where someone declares "and then I completely fucked up when I should have known better".
This said, I think if Wilhelmine would have been as deeply involved in the failed escape attempt as that, she and Fritz would have referred to it at some point once they didn't have to fear FW reading their letters anymore. Also, as
(Otherwise, the easiest way they might have managed was the way Grandpa F1 did while still a prince bend believing the Elector and Stepmom had it in for him: visit Hannover, stay there instead of returning. But like I said - no way FW would have let them visit in the first place.)
What I do think is possible is that Wilhelmine knew more than she ever admitted - not exact details, especially since the plan kept changing, but at the very least, Fritz must have asked her for jewelry so he'd have money, and I don't think she believed it was all for books. But I also believe she was always hoping he wouldn't do it and never sure whether or not he would, hence her asking, as Katte himself testifies and as she mentions in her memoirs, whether Fritz would come back.
Also: until April 1730, there was still the hope the English Marriage Project would finally work out, and she and Fritz would get to leave legally, first for Hannover, then in her case for Britain.
I see we all agree on rejecting the idea of Wilhelmine with a strong sex drive. :)
Re: Cornelia Naumann: Scherben des Glücks ("Shards of Happiness" - a novel about Wilhelmine)
Date: 2022-01-08 05:13 pm (UTC)Yes, this. While I'm willing to believe that like literally everyone except possibly Peter Keith, she did try to talk Fritz out of this on the obvious grounds that it was incredibly risky and also that he would be leaving her behind in hell, there is an air of "And of course I was the only one with any freaking common sense" in her memoirs that I've always side-eyed as very hindsight-y.
Also, as [personal profile] felis says, I'm not sure how it could have been done, logistically
Agreed. If Sonsine the English-marriage-supporter is on board, she might have been able to help smuggle Wilhelmine out in disguise? But as you say, she likely wouldn't have had the motivation to take all that risk, when
until April 1730, there was still the hope the English Marriage Project would finally work out
Even later than that: Hotham doesn't leave until July 12, and July 15 is when Fritz and FW set off for their tour of the other provinces. That's not a lot of time to plan a Wilhelmine escape!
In conclusion: God, those poor kids.
Re: Cornelia Naumann: Scherben des Glücks ("Shards of Happiness" - a novel about Wilhelmine)
Date: 2022-01-08 05:08 pm (UTC)I agree with this, and what I didn't say in my original reply was that I liked this version better too! You go, Wilhelmine!